Texas Houston Mission

Monday, February 20, 2012

A Meeting with Elder D. Todd Christofferson

On Saturday, a combined meeting was held with missionaries from all over Houston. Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was in town on church business and kindly made time in his schedule to speak and shake hands with the missionaries serving here. Early Saturday morning, missionaries from the three Houston missions drove long distances in a rain storm, only to find a flooded/under construction parking lot. They worked to park the many cars, but decided to change the location to another church building last minute. Miraculously, all missionaries made it to the new location safely in the rain and were seated just before Elder Gifford Nielsen and Elder Christofferson arrived. It was a glorious experience for us all to be taught and spiritually fed by an Apostle of the Lord. Hopefully your missionaries will give you further details in their emails home. In case they don't, here are a few of the topics he addressed (from our notes):

God knows you personally and He has called you to the specific mission you are in.
Your mission is the only time in your life when you can dedicate two hours each day to study the gospel. Now is the time to establish a gospel and scriptural foundation for the rest of your life.
Companion study is a time to receive revelation - to know who to teach, what to teach, and how to teach.
We need to teach, not preach. Teach in a way so that you listen to what your investigators need. Seek the Spirit to help you know what is in their mind and in their heart.
How do we know who is prepared to receive the gospel? The Book of Mormon is the great sifter. We should invite people to read and pray about The Book of Mormon. If they respond to the Book, they are ready. If they do not respond, then they are not yet ready.
To find greater happiness as a missionary, forget yourself and focus on the people you serve.
Your motivation has to be love. If this is not why you serve, then you will not get through it. How do we develop love? As you go about serving others and as you plead to the Father for this spiritual gift, it will come.
In the end, Elder Christofferson blessed each missionary to have expanded capacity, receive more revelation, have more power with the Spirit, be protected, find joy in the service, and gain greater light and understanding through the scriptures.

Due to weather conditions, a change in location and finding our missionaries in the crowd, it was difficult to take pictures. We did, however, manage to take a few in the parking lot and church foyer.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Zone Conferences

This week we held two zone conferences in the Texas Houston Mission. On Tuesday, we met with the West, Cypress and Katy zones and then on Wednesday the Klein, Spring, College Station and Houston North zones. It is always wonderful to gather as missionaries to feel the Spirit of the Lord and be taught important principles that will help us in our missionary efforts. Throughout the days, missionaries were instructed on the plan-study-teach cycle, first lessons, power hour, health, nutrition, car safety, referral reporting, strengthening less-actives, apartment maintenance, manners, gratitude and smiling more. We also heard beautiful musical numbers, miracles and a presentation from the ASL missionaries on how to contact deaf people. As always, the highlight of each day was hearing testimonies from the departing missionaries and additional testimonies as time allowed. We appreciate wonderful members from the Katy Stake and Spring ward who provided lunch for the missionaries and all others who helped to make these conferences possible. Pictures from both zone conferences have been combined into one entry. We hope you will find a picture or two of your missionary.